Dapitan

The scenic north coast city of DAPITAN, with its red-roofed houses and sweeping ocean bay, is best known for its connection to national hero José Rizal, who was exiled here in the 1890s. The main drag in Dapitan is Sunset Boulevard, a romantic seafront promenade where you’ll find banks, shops and a number of hotels. The Rizal Shrine on the northern edge of the city is a pleasant parkland area encompassing the grounds where Rizal spent his exile. The park contains faithful reproductions of the simple cottage he lived in (Casa Cuadrada), the octagonal schoolroom where he taught (Casa Redonda), his chicken house (Casa Redonda Pequeña) and two clinics (Casitas de Salud) where he worked. The Rizal Museum (same hours; free) is also here, and contains memorabilia such as his books, notebooks and medical equipment. To get here either take a tricycle from the city centre or walk – it’s only ten minutes via Bagting Bridge with Dapitan Bay on your left. Rizal also designed a huge grass Relief Map of Mindanao that still exists today in F. Saguin Street.

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José Rizal in Dapitan

The decision to exile José Rizal to Dapitan was taken so he could contemplate his sins against Spain and, “publicly retract his errors concerning religion, and make statements that were clearly pro-Spanish and against revolution”. He arrived in 1892 and left shortly before his execution in 1896. During his four-year exile Rizal was famously productive: he practised medicine and pursued scientific studies, continued his artistic and literary works, widened his knowledge of languages and established a school for boys. It was also in Dapitan that he first set eyes on Josephine Bracken, the smouldering Irish beauty whom he married in a private ceremony in his cell two hours before his execution. Tragically the son she bore Rizal was stillborn and is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Dapitan. Bracken married again in Hong Kong, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.